Gwangju City Begins Design for Hanam District Municipal Library Construction Project

Selection of Works by Chang Architectural Design Co., Ltd. and Human Plan Architectural Office Co., Ltd.

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 18th that it will officially begin the design of the Hanam District Public Library construction project.

The Hanam District Public Library will be built on a park site in Hanam 2 District, Gwangsan-gu, where there is no public library, by investing a total project cost of 29.2 billion KRW, in accordance with Gwangju City's mid- to long-term comprehensive library plan (2018?2022) and the public library expansion plan (one public library per autonomous district).

In particular, it will serve as a regional hub for providing information for citizen education, culture, and welfare, as well as for building local archives and future global resources.

To this end, Gwangju City started the design competition announcement last October and held the design competition judging committee on the 9th, selecting the work by Chang Architectural Design Office Co., Ltd. (lead firm) and Human Plan Architectural Office Co., Ltd. (joint applicant) as the winning entry among three submissions.

The winning design received high scores based on the concept of a library located in a park where nature and culture coexist, organically connecting the park and the library to restore the park's sense of place and adding symbolism as a regional landmark.

The library will have a total floor area of 7,250㎡, spanning from one basement floor to four above-ground floors. Inside, it will include reading spaces for the disabled, seniors, and global users, as well as multipurpose rooms for audiovisual education, a dome screen space, and cultural education spaces.

The exterior will be designed as a resting area for library users, featuring various themed courtyards, a children's playground connected to the infant reading room, and walking paths where citizens can relax.

Gwangju City plans to sign a design service contract with the winner and begin the design on the 22nd. After 11 months of design, construction is scheduled to start in December 2021, aiming for the library to open in the second half of 2023.

Choi Won-seok, Head of Architectural Equipment, said, “Once the Hanam District Public Library, where nature and culture coexist, is built, it will fulfill the functions of a knowledge information center that meets the diverse information needs of local residents and a reading cultural space that realizes the community function of the region.” He added, “We expect the quality of life for local residents to improve with the opening of the library.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.